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Final Four fixup?

When I hear statistics about what an event will do for a region, most often published by conventions and visitors bureaus or focus groups or whomever, I often scoff.
The proposed medical mart and convention center will bring $149 million or $3 billion or some other sum to the city every year. Or, the U.S. figure skating championships, or the NBA Finals, or the Super Bowl (oh come on, thats funny). No matter the event, someone somewhere estimates that it will bring in a hefty pot cash, and I immediately break into the Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler really? routine.
I cant be the only one, right? Right.
Fox Business Network anchor Connell McShane, too, is leery of just how much impact this weekends Final Four will have on the terribly ailing city of Detroit.
Ive done a number of stories about economic impact of things like sporting events and the building of new stadiums, and the impact usually turns out to be pretty small. For one thing, the estimates that tourism groups throw out there are almost always exaggerated.
Elsewhere:

Heres an interview a blogger did with Indians general manager Mark Shapiro. Most of it is draft-focused, but heres an interesting exchange on the effects of being an agents son; Shapiros father, Ron, is a lawyer, author and long-time agent.
Real Baseball Intelligence: How has being the son of an agent affected your approach to dealing with agents? Are you willing to draft one of Scott Boras clients? Shapiro: I certainly am wiling to deal with any agent. Being the son of an agent helps me understand their job a little better, but most importantly my outlook with agents has always been that our jobs are identical 95% of the time  its to help the player achieve the highest level of his potential possible. Certainly there are very small portions of time when we are talking contracts when there are separations in our goals and intents, but 95% of time we want the same thing.

This weeks sign of the times: The best news for the four-team Eastern Professional Hockey League is that it didnt fold. Yikes.
Updating previous items:

As I wrote last Friday, Oklahoma senior forward Courtney Paris has said she will pay back the amount of her four-year scholarship to the university if the Sooners dont win the womens championship. The Sooners are in the Final Four, where theyll play Louisville on Sunday night. If they win, theyll likely have a date with now-37-0 Connecticut. How fun!

Also last Friday, I detailed the roaring start of Major League Soccers Seattle Sounders, and the rest of the country seems to be catching on.

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